U.S. and British planes strike targets near Baghdad

The strikes were ordered "in response to recent surface-to-air missile (SAM) and anti-aircraft artillery fire against coalition forces" patrolling the no-fly zones, U.S. officials said.

Twenty-four strike aircraft, including some based on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman in the Persian Gulf, struck five Iraqi command-and-control sites that had recently beefed up Iraq's capability to challenge allied planes, Marine Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Iraqi air defences had been increasing both the frequency and sophistication of their operations," said Newbold, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. "They were getting closer and closer to our aircraft."

The coalition aircraft never went north of the 33rd parallel, the northern edge of the no-fly zone, but used "precision-guided stand- off munitions" to strike the targets, Newbold said. U.S. officials would not divulge what types of aircraft or munitions were used.

The five targets included one inside the no-fly zone, three just south of Baghdad and one north of the Iraqi capital, all within 5-10 miles of the city. Surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery were fired in defence, but no U.S. or British planes were hit. Iraqi television reported that five people were killed in the strikes.

Two of the targets were advanced radars that allowed Iraqi forces to coordinate their air defences and increase the risk to U.S. and British planes, Newbold said.

"The sites were targeted to degrade Iraq's ability to threaten coalition aircraft enforcing United Nations mandates," the Central Command said in a statement issued from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

U.S. President George W. Bush authorized the strike - his first exercise of military power since taking office on January 20 - "because of the risk posed to our aircraft," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in Mexico, where Bush was visiting with President Vicente Fox.

Despite the need for presidential authorization, Fleischer called the operation a "routine strike" to enforce the no-fly zones. In London, the British Defence Ministry said the strikes were ordered to protect coalition flyers.

"Faced with the significant rise in the number of attacks on our aircrews, we had no choice but to take action to protect them," the British spokesman said.

Defence Minister Geoffrey Hoon signed on to the strikes earlier in the week, the spokesman said. The most recent coalition strike against Iraqi targets occurred Tuesday, when aircraft struck a missile site inside the southern no- fly zone in response to recent provocations. Striking targets outside the zones was unusual, but Pentagon sources said coalition planes did not cross the line, media reports said.

There have been more than 700 incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missiles or anti-aircraft fire against coalition aircraft since December 1998, when U.S. and British forces conducted four days of air raids against Iraqi targets.

But Iraqi forces recently have increased their challenges of coalition aircraft, with more than 60 incidents since January 1, the Central Command said. Arabic Al-Jazira television said several missiles flashed across the skies of the Iraqi capital in the evening, leading to speculation of a U.S. air attack on Baghdad.

The television report, monitored in Nicosia, was unclear as to whether the resulting explosions were the result of anti-aircraft guns or of missiles being fired from an attacking airplane or planes.

Air raid sirens sounded, but there was no immediate official statement from Baghdad authorities. The explosions could be heard throughout the Iraqi capital, which apparently went on heightened alert, and martial music was played on local television, a CNN reporter said.

U.S. and British planes, which enforce the no-fly zones, have engaged in frequent strikes since Baghdad ended its participation in 1998 in the U.N.-monitored weapons inspections programme.

A massive, week-long air strike against Iraqi targets in December 1998 was the last time allied planes hit targets near Baghdad.

(klei/dpa)